UPS Blinks, Offers New Deal To Appease Union

United Parcel Service (UPS) on Wednesday (Thursday, July 20, 2023, in Manila) said it would return to the bargaining table with a better offer for roughly 340,000 Teamsters-represented US workers, in a bid to avert a potentially economically damaging strike on Aug. 1, 2023, Reuters reported.

Photo Insert: The union said the world's largest delivery company contacted it on Wednesday with an offer to resume talks next week.

"We are prepared to increase our industry-leading pay and benefits, but need to work quickly to finalize a fair deal that provides certainty for our customers, our employees, and businesses across the country," UPS said in a statement.

The union said the world's largest delivery company contacted it on Wednesday with an offer to resume talks next week, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said in a statement on Twitter.

Talks broke down on July 5, with each side blaming the other.

A key sticking point in the talks is pay increases for experienced part-time workers who are making roughly the same or even less than new hires because starting wages jumped due to the labor shortage in the last few years.

Any disruption to the business of UPS would be broadly felt because the company handles about 20 million packages a day - about a quarter of the parcel shipments in the United States.

Those include deliveries for online retailers like Amazon.com, high-value prescription drugs for doctors and hospitals, and inventory for millions of other large and small businesses.

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